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Before Bob Whelan taught English at the University of Maine, he spent 20 years serving in the United States Army. His experiences on two tours of duty in Vietnam have given him a different perspective on the current war.
You can’t support the troops and not the war, Whelan said.
“Do you want us to lose?” he said. He agrees with high-ranking military officials like Gen. Wesley Clark, who didn’t consider the war a smart choice.
“How much is the civilian leadership listening to its generals?” he asked.
Now that U.S forces are in Iraq, however, he sees no other option than to support the effort because he doesn’t want the country to be humiliated.
“I just hope the military leaders know what we’re doing,” he said.
Whelan went to Vietnam with Special Forces for his first tour in January of 1965, returning to Fort Jackson to “train kids to go.” The next time he went to Vietnam as a district senior advisor, giving advice to the regional chief, for whom he had great respect. It was during this tour that Whelan “realized the war was un-winable, particularly in the way we were fighting it.”
There have been many comparisons between Vietnam and the war against Iraq, but to Whelan, they don’t add up.
They are very different situations with “different terrain, dynamics and culture,” he said.
One of the strengths of the Viet Cong was that they were organized all the way down to the hamlet level, Whelan said. “I would guess that 80 percent of people wanted us out.”
The Vietnamese also have a strong history of repelling invaders. Whelan doesn’t know how the average Iraqi feels about the United States or how well the opposition is organized, but he worries that the U.S. government doesn’t understand the culture and history of the Iraqi people and has made the risky assumption that the United States will be greeted with open arms.
“You can go into a fantasy world if you’re not very careful,” Whelan said.
The U.S. military is much different than it was during the Vietnam War, and even during the Persian Gulf War, according to Whelan. Now the military is comprised as a volunteer army, modeled after the British. That may mean that it is more professionalized, with better discipline.
“American discipline went to hell,” Whelan said of Vietnam. He didn’t notice a difference between the volunteers and the draftees in Vietnam.
The size of the Army has also changed drastically.
“Our army is half the size it was during the first Gulf War,” Whelan said.
Comparing the number of troops, the U.S. doesn’t have a distinct advantage over Iraq. The U.S. military does have air and technological superiority and is possibly better trained, Whelan said. But the U.S. supply lines are very long, which makes them vulnerable, especially if the Iraqis decide to use guerrilla warfare. Whelan said the possibility exists that the United States did not calculate for the worst-case scenario.
“Do we have anyone advising us about ‘the enemy’?” he said.
Even so, Whelan doesn’t anticipate U.S. military defeat.
“We probably will prevail, but what will that mean?” Whelan said. “The problem will be when we try to ‘nation-build.’”
Whelan worries that adequate resources may be lacking in Iraq.
“The government pooh-poohed the projections of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki. He told the U.S. government leaders how many troops and resources will be needed [to create a new government in Iraq.]” Whelan said he hopes post-war resistance has been taken into account.
“Know your enemy,” he said. “Don’t ever underestimate them.”
Part of Whelan is overseas, “thinking about those poor guys and gals and what they have to sacrifice.”
Whelan offers advice to them as a veteran.
“Try not to fall into the trap of dehumanization, both of yourself and the enemy you’re fighting,” he said. “Don’t paint everybody with the same brush.”
Bangor Daily News